Six days after committing five turnovers in a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, Jalen Hurts turned in a mistake-free performance Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, leading the Philadelphia Eagles to a 31-0 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. Hurts threw three touchdown passes with no interceptions as the Eagles snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 9-5.
Hurts completed 12 of 15 passes for 175 yards and finished with a quarterback rating of 154.9. He added seven carries for 39 yards. The performance came after a 22-19 overtime loss to the Chargers in which Hurts threw four interceptions and lost a fumble. Over the five games entering Sunday, the Eagles averaged 16 points per game.
“I wouldn’t want another quarterback, to be honest,” linebacker Nakobe Dean said. He said Hurts faces criticism regularly but continues to approach each week with the same mindset and work habits.
The game was played in cold conditions with several inches of snow on the field. Hurts opened the scoring with a shovel-pass touchdown to tight end Dallas Goedert. He later connected with DeVonta Smith on a 44-yard completion that helped set up a Jake Elliott field goal. Saquon Barkley added a 2-yard touchdown run before halftime, giving the Eagles a 17-0 lead. Barkley finished with 22 carries for 78 yards.
“I feel like we got caught up in stuff that doesn’t matter,” Barkley said. “The only thing that matters is winning football.”
Hurts added a 4-yard touchdown pass to Goedert in the third quarter and a 27-yard touchdown throw to A.J. Brown early in the fourth. The Eagles committed three penalties and rested Hurts for much of the fourth quarter.
“Everybody’s watching,” Hurts said. He said that attention has not changed his approach and that he focuses on leading and setting an example.
Philadelphia’s defense allowed 75 total yards. According to ESPN Research, it was the fewest yards the Eagles have allowed in a game since Dec. 4, 1955, when they gave up 49 yards to the Chicago Cardinals. The Raiders were limited to 46 rushing yards and 64 passing yards.
Kenny Pickett made his first start for Las Vegas after Geno Smith injured his right shoulder and hand in a 24-17 loss to Denver the previous week. Pickett was sacked four times as the Raiders fell to 2-12 and lost their eighth straight game.
“This is the result against the world champs last year who maybe weren’t playing quite like that for a month here or whatever, but they looked like it today,” Raiders coach Pete Carroll said.
The shutout was Philadelphia’s first since Dec. 30, 2018, against Washington. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, who said last week that it was “ridiculous” to suggest Hurts could be benched, said the team stayed focused despite outside attention.
“You control your own confidence; you control your own joy when there’s a lot of noise out there; you control all that,” Sirianni said.
Following the win, the performance also coincided with modest betting movement tied to Philadelphia’s turnaround. The Eagles were listed at +1100 to win the Super Bowl at BetMGM after opening the season at +650. For their next game against Washington on Saturday, Dec. 20, Philadelphia opened as a 5.5-point favorite, with the line moving as high as 6.5 at some sportsbooks after Washington shut down quarterback Jayden Daniels for the remainder of the season.
Hurts recorded his fourth game this season with three passing touchdowns and no interceptions, the most he has had in a single year. Left tackle Jordan Mailata said Hurts’ weekly routine remains consistent regardless of results.
Defensively, Brandon Graham recorded his first two sacks since returning from a short-lived retirement in late October. At 37 years and 255 days old, Graham became the oldest player in Eagles history to record a sack, surpassing Richard Dent, who was 37 years, 1 day old when he did so in 1997.
Hurts and Barkley were both checked by trainers during the game, but remained in until the score was out of reach and said afterward they were fine. Former President Joe Biden attended the game and told a local NBC television reporter he was rooting for the Eagles, saying, “Go Birds, man, all the way.”
